Canfield announces bid for Knox County Sheriff

Wednesday

Aug 2, 2017 at 8:59 AMAug 2, 2017 at 8:59 AM

Robert Connelly The Register-Mail RConnelly_

GALESBURG — A Republican has announced his candidacy for Knox County sheriff.

Kip Canfield, 56, talked with The Register-Mail Tuesday afternoon about his decision to run for sheriff. Knox County Sheriff David Clague, a Democrat, announced his bid for re-election to The Register-Mail about two weeks ago.

There have been rumors afloat for some time that Canfield, public safety director at Carl Sandburg College, would seek the position. He said leadership at the college supported his decision to seek the office.

"I had some friends and some acquaintances probably in the last year have approached me and asked me if I'd be interested in running for sheriff. At the beginning, I really wasn't interested because I was comfortable where I was at," he said.

"As a few more people mentioned it, I began to think really hard about it. What really got me going was my family was behind it: my two daughters, my wife, their husbands, their families all thought it would be a good idea. Once they all backed me, that's when I started thinking about it hard."

Canfield served with the Galesburg Police Department for a little more than 20 years and retired as a sergeant in 2006. He also served in the U.S. Army as a military police officer from 1979 to 1982.

After GPD, Canfield trained Iraqi and Afghan military police as a civilian with different companies for different stretches of time over an eight-year period.

"I was in the military and knew somewhat how war works. I was too young for Vietnam and I was involved in the Cold War. It was something I felt that I could do greater good for the entire world. That was the focal point and that opportunity came, and I talked to my family and they were understanding and I was able to get involved," Canfield said of his recent overseas service.

He also returned to Galesburg to work with the city's neighborhood enhancement program from 2010 to 2013. From there, he took the job with Carl Sandburg College, which held his job for a year as he went back to train military police in the Middle East.

Canfield said he hopes to debate Clague ahead of the November 2018 election.

"From listening to the people and from the people I talked with, I saw that there was a need for a change in leadership and had talked to the leadership of the Republican party. And I've been a Republican all my life and knew that if I was going to run, it wasn't going to be running for anything but the Republican ticket ... and thought it would be a good fit at this particular time in my life," he said.

On the need for change, Canfield said, "the Republican party has never really pressed a candidate against him and I think it's good for the political process. I know Sheriff Clague and I think I can offer more than what is currently in the jail and the county sheriff's department."

Clague was only challenged in his first election, in 2008. He ran unopposed in 2010 and 2014. March 20, 2018, has been designated for the primary for any contested races involving two or more people from the same party. The election is Nov. 6, 2018.

Canfield did address running as a Republican for elected office in Knox County, as Galesburg in particular tends to lean Democrat.

"I think it's going to be a challenge because Galesburg does typically go Democrat, but it doesn't mean they will in this case. I've always believed local politics is really not Democrat/Republican, but who people in this county and these cities think can do the best job. I'm a Republican, and I've even told Republican leadership that there are times I have voted locally for Democrats because I thought they would do the best job over the Republican that was running against them. That's local politics."